DejaD
ARG=almost ready to glue
Finally done. This took way longer than I had anticipated. Lots of panel lines to cover. I did reinforce the bottoom of the battery tray directly behind the firewall, some people said the were having issues with foam seperation. I think they were making hard landings and the nose-overs were causing stress on the foam which weakened it. I took my time and routed the servo leads under the servo mounts then back around to the reciever. the wire bundle in this bird is quite large and the fuselage is quite narrow...not a great combo.
Overall I'm pretty happy with the plane out of the box. There were very few blemishes on the plane, maybe 3 or 4. One small area (8 or 10 mm across) had the paint re-touched at the factory and there were the normal handling and shipping kind of marks but nothing major in that respect. The cowl on this beast is like no other I have seen. It is a heavy plastic at about 2mm thick. If you hit hard enough to break this badboy, you will need a new plane. As I said, the fuse is narrow so you'll need to get creative with the wiring to keep it out of the way and looking tidy.
The canopy glass leaves much to be desired. it is hazy and not terribly clear. That may be a blessing in diguise as it will help hide the fact that the pilot is clearly not Japanese.
The biggest issue I have is that the fuselage seems to be bowed downward near the tail. this has created a rather large gap between the rudder and the rear tip of the fuse. I tried to force it up while it was gluing but it just wouldn't stay. Oh well, I'll get used to it and it shouldn't effect the flying , at least I hope not. The other part that didn't fit too well were the little wing fillet panels. Mine just would not flush out to the surrounding panels. Again, not a huge deal but just looks a bit goofy to me. The elevator fillets fit much better.
The last and maybe my least favorite aspect of this plane is the fact that the tail section is glued on not screwed on...I can't think of one good reason why they would design it like this but they have. So now, if I accidentally snap my vertical stabilizer off carrying the plane through a doorway or some other narrow space, I have to CUT the glue to remove the stabilizer panels. It just doesn't make any sense to me and I don't like it one little bit. A screw on arrangement probably would have allowed me to get the rear end of mine to fit better even though the fuse is a bit askew.
I hope she flies well, everyone says they do.
Overall I'm pretty happy with the plane out of the box. There were very few blemishes on the plane, maybe 3 or 4. One small area (8 or 10 mm across) had the paint re-touched at the factory and there were the normal handling and shipping kind of marks but nothing major in that respect. The cowl on this beast is like no other I have seen. It is a heavy plastic at about 2mm thick. If you hit hard enough to break this badboy, you will need a new plane. As I said, the fuse is narrow so you'll need to get creative with the wiring to keep it out of the way and looking tidy.
The canopy glass leaves much to be desired. it is hazy and not terribly clear. That may be a blessing in diguise as it will help hide the fact that the pilot is clearly not Japanese.
The biggest issue I have is that the fuselage seems to be bowed downward near the tail. this has created a rather large gap between the rudder and the rear tip of the fuse. I tried to force it up while it was gluing but it just wouldn't stay. Oh well, I'll get used to it and it shouldn't effect the flying , at least I hope not. The other part that didn't fit too well were the little wing fillet panels. Mine just would not flush out to the surrounding panels. Again, not a huge deal but just looks a bit goofy to me. The elevator fillets fit much better.
The last and maybe my least favorite aspect of this plane is the fact that the tail section is glued on not screwed on...I can't think of one good reason why they would design it like this but they have. So now, if I accidentally snap my vertical stabilizer off carrying the plane through a doorway or some other narrow space, I have to CUT the glue to remove the stabilizer panels. It just doesn't make any sense to me and I don't like it one little bit. A screw on arrangement probably would have allowed me to get the rear end of mine to fit better even though the fuse is a bit askew.
I hope she flies well, everyone says they do.
